Tuesday, July 10, 2012

How liberals think about taxes

Norah O'Donnell

Norah O'Donnell is the Chief White House Correspondent for CBS News. On tonight's newscast, she explained her view of tax cuts:

President Obama is calling on Congress to pass a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for households earning less than $250,000 a year and individuals earning less than $200,000. Those tax cuts expire at the end of December and the cost to taxpayers for the year: $150 billion.…

But Republicans -- including Mitt Romney -- want to make permanent all of the Bush-era tax cuts, including those for households earning over $250,000. The cost to taxpayers? An additional $850 billion over the next ten years.… [Emph. added]

Yes, that is right: She thinks that "tax cuts" occur at a "cost to taxpayers." This doesn't appear to be a misspeak: she said it twice, once with respect to Obama's proposal and again with respect to Romney's.

Of course, as liberals are wont to do, she is confusing "taxpayers" with the government. The tax cuts reduce government revenues and thus the government might, in some twisted accounting, think of them as a cost.

I expect that she thinks of herself as an "unbiased reporter" but, with thinking such as this, she illustrates why liberals cannot be "unbiased" even if they try.